Author: Matt Burnham

Something new this year: Orientation materials were sent out in the mail.  If you do not receive yours in the next week, please contact the school office.

Orientation schedule as follows:

Tuesday Aug. 7 – 7th graders only

Wednesday Aug. 8 – 8th graders only

9:00 am – Last name begins with A – H

10:00 am – Last name begins with I-Q

11:00 am – Last name begins with R-Z

Thursday Aug. 9th – Make-up day all grades 9 am – 12 pm

Please remember to bring cash if you plan to purchase any items. PTSA will accept cash or checks for membership and donations.

If you cannot make any of the orientation days, please contact the school office after Aug. 13th to make arrangements.

Portola Band teacher, Tiffany Carrico, will be teaching band camps for three weeks. Camps will be held at Portola Middle School band room.

Dates are:
July 16-20
July 23-27
July 30-August 3

Elementary level is from 9 am to 12 pm
Middle school level is from 1 pm to 4 pm

Registration is through El Cerrito Parks and Recreation.

Students do not have to sign up for all 3 weeks.  One week at a time is ok.

Be heard.

One of the most amazing things people in this country take for granted is the ability to freely express one’s opinion. And you don’t even have to write a full page blog about it. Just one word suffices.

Yes.

And that one ‘Yes’ can have the power to keep librarians in our schools. A ‘Yes’ can keep our already overburdened teachers from being just overwhelmed with the number of students per class. A ‘Yes’ can mean that your child can seek a counselor if needed, instead of none at all. A ‘Yes’ can mean enriching a child’s life with music, art, technology, woodshop, home economics- remember those?

Yes – times are tough and we don’t like to pay taxes. Have you thought about the alternatives?

Measure K needs 2/3 voter approval to pass. Will your ‘Yes’ be the deciding vote?

Mr. McCormick, in collaboration with ECHS  English Department teachers, has a summer reading and writing assignment for all freshmen intending to take Advance English 1 at EC next school year.

Click HERE for the link to the instructions to the assignment. If link does not work, instructions will also be posted on the Teachers’ Corner in the website.

Thanks to Mr. Burnham and the many awesome parent volunteers who helped make this a successful event. Check out what EC Patch had to say about the first annual Portola Faire:

EC Patch report on Portola Faire

Portola hosted Lawrence Hall of Science Wizard’s Lab festival today in the El Cerrito Community Center main hall. Students went from station to station investigating different physical science models and demonstrations.  They got a chance to play around with magnets, pendulums, rolling racers. They learned about various aspects of electricity, and different forces of motion. The spinning platform, the Van de Graaf Generator, and the “Shocker” were very popular.

Thanks to the following people for assisting the students:

Yoko Morita, Romy Douglass, Mike Mason, Yokiko Miller, Eric Miller, Lisa Masunaga, Ying Tsu Loh, Anita Ko, Julie Yamashita, Susan Martin, Valerie Snider, Carlota Jimenez, Michael Yamauchi.

Special thanks to Mr. Bob Fabini for sending over his students to help us out today. Jocelyn Strauss, Laila Fawzi, Courtney Williams, Stephanie Lipscombe, Dzidi Djugba, Rachel Graup, Xochitl Hidalgo, Lindsey Mixer, and Hannah Banks were on hand to help demonstrate their stations.

Art work covered the Portola Cafe today with students trying their hand doing artwork by Monet, Matisse, Escher, Van Gogh, Frank Lloyd Wright, etc. They explored various mediums including wire, beads, pastels, markers, collages.

Thanks to the following volunteers for helping to make it run smoothly:
Rula Adranly
Mike Mason
Valerie Snider
Ying Tsu Loh
Marie Streshinsky
Yoko Morita
Carlota Jimenez
Romy Douglass
Susan Martin
Tracey Kitaoka

One down, two more to go! Lawrence Hall of Science comes to Portola next Friday. Then the First Annual Portola Faire on June 2nd.

You can still order your yearbook at either Jostens.com or at the school main office. Yearbooks are $38 each. The main office only accepts cash. Yearbooks will be distributed on the last week of school.

Thanks to all the parents who came to Open House and came to see us at the PTSA table.  Hope you got your lollipop!

Come check out Portola between 6:30-8:00. Classrooms will be open from 6:30-7:30. We will have a Measure K Moment from 7:30-7:45. Closing the night is Portola’s Drama class giving you a preview of their up-coming play “Mixed Up Fairy Tales”